Airwaves

by Brian Goslow

Last month, while oldies stations celebrated the 30th anniversary of the release of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Bill LeBeau, host of New Traditions heard every Wednesday from 6 to 9 a.m. on WCUW (91.3 FM), was filling the airwaves with every cover version from the Fab Four songbook possible. It was a typical LeBeau program.

"It goes all over the place, but mostly focuses on obscure British-girls, garage, country, and psychedelic stuff. I love obscure Mersey and German Beat bands." LeBeau's modern-day faves include Death Valley's Que Pasta (Linguine), Friends of Dean Martinez ("westerny spaghetti surf music"), the Surf Trio, Kaisers, Tailgaters, and Thee Headcoates.

He's a big fan of El Vez ("the Mexican Elvis") and Eric Lindgren's Arf! Arf! label ("great psychedelic and garage stuff, especially Simon the Pieman, the Chessmen, and A Heavy Dose of Light Psych"). Ben Vaughn's Rambler '65 (Rhino) also rates highly. "All of the CD was recorded in his car. He had drums programmed on a little Casio keyboard synthesizer on the front seat of his car, and he plays along with his guitar. I think it was recorded at the end of an airport runway because you can hear planes taking off."

Each week, LeBeau spotlights "The Screwball Hit of the Week." Past highlights? "There's Merv Griffin doing `You Can't Get Much Higher Than This,' Mrs. Miller [a singing mom who really shouldn't have], Jerry Matthew's Beaver and the Trappers, and some really cheesy British-girl stuff, including Julie London doing `Yummy, Yummy, Yummy.' The Sound Gallery is two albums of wife-swapping music. The first was so bad I had to buy the second.

"Pretty soon, every song that was ever recorded or taped in the studio is going to be on CD." Gone are the days when you would scour flea markets, garage sales, and record catalogues to uncover hard-to-find recordings. "It's great being a DJ now, you can buy a CD with 30 songs by rare British or surf groups."

That doesn't mean that every audiophile has had his addiction filled. "You still have to check the yard sales. My father-in-law was a pig farmer. He'd come home with a pile of records he had scoffed from the side of the road that had been left their by parents who had tossed them, because they didn't want their kids listening to rock and roll."

The August 6 New Traditions will feature three hours filled with nothing but screwy hits, hosted by LeBeau and his brother-in-law (talk about marrying into royalty!). "People call us and say that [they] can't believe what's coming out of their radio -- it's some awful stuff!" he says proudly.

Good taste isn't the only thing passed down to LeBeau. He owns Airbrush Works, a sign-painting company located in the former Neon Jungle studio that was owned by ex-Odds member Steve Cohn who now lives in Hawaii. "I also do custom motorcycle painting," says LeBeau, who began hosting the Wednesday edition of New Traditions in 1995. "I had been listening to 'CUW since the early '80s. I used to pledge to their shows and got to know Rob Silverberg (host on Fridays) after meeting him at a club in Boston. I mentioned I'd love to do a show and a few months later he gave me a call. I had never done radio before. I was scared as hell -- still am!"